[ncdnhc-discuss] Board conflict of interest on .org

[Dave Crocker]

At 06:44 PM 5/13/2002 -0700, Barbara Simons wrote:
>"The utterance or spreading of a false statement or statements, harmful to
>another's character or reputation: legally, slander is spoken, as distinct
>from libel, which is written."

American Heritage has "oral" in the first definition, but does not require 
it for the second.  Better, still, is that I have watched attorneys refer 
to email content as slander.

>Aside from the detail that Milton's email was written and not spoken (at
>least as far as this list is concerned), an obvious defense against slander
>and libel is demonstrating the truthfulness of one's comment.

And indeed that is why I have demanded that Milton document the required facts.


>Therefore, if Mr. Blokzijl's wife was hired by Neulevel a few months after
>they were married, and if Lynn Blokzijl is the Neulevel representative
>in the Netherlands, then Milton's comments cannot in any way be viewed as
>either slander or, more precisely, libel.

Wrong.  Please do not invent criteria.

Go back to the questions that I asked.  THEY are what is relevant to COI 
violation.

The mere fact that Rob is married to someone with a NeuLevel affiliation 
does not establish COI, absent satisfaction of the the questions I asked.

At a minimum, read ICANN Bylaws, Section 7.  They say nothing about spousal 
employment.


>P.S.  Even if Milton were wrong, which I doubt, anyone attempting to bring a
>libel case against him for this posting would be laughed out of court.

I was not speaking as an attorney, and I was not suggesting a line of legal 
effort.

So why don't we instead focus on how grossly inappropriate it is for Milton 
to make assertions of fact without offering substantiation, particularly 
when the assertions are injurious to a person's reputation.

d/

----------
Dave Crocker <mailto:dave at tribalwise.com>
TribalWise, Inc. <http://www.tribalwise.com>
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